The Vermont Portfolio Project

Vermont is one of only a handful of states that has never had a
statewide assessment program. It attempted to implement a
traditional standardized test in 1989, but received so much
criticism from educators that it dropped the plan. It is also one
of a very few states that allows school districts to decide whether
or not they will participate in the program. Most districts do
participate.

Vermont's voluntary state assessment program is made up of
portfolios and uniform tests.

Writing and Mathematics Portfolios are administered at
grades four and eight, with plans to expand to grade ten. All
students develop portfolios, but only a sample of the portfolios
are scored and included in the official state assessment.

Uniform test results in mathematics and writing in grades
four and eight are included in the portfolio and used, in part,
to confirm portfolio ratings.

During the 1992-93 school year, fourth and eighth graders in
participating school districts began compiling portfolios in
mathematics and writing. These portfolios hold work samples that
reflect the student's mastery of seven state mathematics criteria
and five writing criteria. The teacher and the student select the
contents of the portfolio, except for the results of the uniform
assessment in mathematics and writing, which are included in all
portfolios. Teachers score their own students' portfolios - an
unusual practice in state assessment, since most states use
trained scorers to ensure uniform scoring. A grade ten portfolio
in mathematics is being planned. Discussions are also underway to
establish a fine arts portfolio.

Vermont's tremendous involvement of teachers in its
state sponsored assessment has won the support of many of the
state's educators, according to an early RAND study (Koretz,
McCaffrey, Klein, Bell, & Stecher, 1992). Two other features of
the assessment program account for its popularity as well. First,
Vermont's teachers and students are actively involved in
selecting work to be placed in students' portfolios, and teachers
grade their own students' portfolios. Second, no accountability -
for either students or schools - is tied to the program. While
allowing teachers to grade their own students' portfolios has
resulted in assessment results that are not comparable (reliable)
across the state (i.e., the same score does not mean the same
thing in different parts of the state), the program retains
flexibility and teacher involvement. Vermont has improved the
reliability of its assessment results (at least in mathematics)
through increased use of regional scoring centers (at least
temporarily) and intensified professional development for teacher
scorers, although they still have a long way to go to obtain
comparable data at the school or individual level that might be
used for school or student accountability (Koretz, Klein,
McCaffrey, & Stecher, 1993; Koretz, Stecher, Klein, McCaffrey, &
Deibert, 1993).